Difference between Available and Required in SCCM

Difference between Available and Required in SCCM – During any software deployment in SCCM you have to decide the way the application should be deployed to the user. When you deploy an application through SCCM you see lot of settings that you can control during the deployment. In the deploy software wizard you would have come across the Deployment Settings. The deployment settings specify how the software is going to be deployed. There are two settings – Deployment Action and Deployment Purpose. Deployment Action includes “Install” or “Uninstall“. You can choose Install option to install an app or Uninstall uninstall an app. If an application is deployed twice to a device, once with an action of Install and once with an action of Uninstall, the application deployment with an action of Install will take priority. Next setting is the deployment purpose, you can configure them to install immediately, or prompt users to request approval from an administrator. Let’s take a look at difference between Available and Required in SCCM.

Difference between Available and Required in SCCM

Available – If the application is deployed to a user, the user sees the published application in the Application Catalog and can request it on demand. If the application is deployed to a device, the user will see it in the Software Center and can install it on demand. In simple words Available applications mean that users can choose to install the software when they want.

Required – The application is deployed automatically according to the configured schedule. However, a user can track the application deployment status if it is not hidden, and can install the application before the deadline by using the Software Center. Required applications have an installation schedule and automatically install if they are not already installed by a defined deadline.

Note – When the deployment action is set to Uninstall, the deployment purpose is automatically set to Required and cannot be changed.

I am Prajwal Desai and I have been working in the IT for over 8 years with a strong focus on Microsoft Server Technologies. For the last five years, as a System Administrator I have been working on Lync, SCCM, Vmware, VDI, Exchange, Windows Servers etc. I’m currently very interested in everything related to Azure, Configuration Manager, Lync, Windows Server and Exchange.